US could demand social media passwords of visa applicants

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly announced at a hearing that discussions are being held with regards to the introduction of more stringent vetting measures as part of the pre-screening of visa applicants.

One of the prerequisites under discussion is the disclosure of social media account passwords to American embassies upon applying for visas.

He stressed that this was just one of the ideas which could be introduced for all worldwide aliens applying to the US, but especially the 7 Muslim majority countries of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen, which comprise President Trumps controversial “Muslim Ban”.

One of the reasons given for additional intrusion was that these 7 countries had a weak background screening. Incidentally, these are the countries which President Obama and congress designated in an executive order as requiring additional security immigration checks and further singled out by President Trump in the temporary immigrant and refugee ban order, which was overturned by Judge James Robart.

At the committee hearing, Secretary Kelly announced; “We’re looking at some enhanced or some additional screening.” “We may want to get on their social media, with passwords.”

He further added; “It’s very hard to truly vet these people in these countries, the seven countries. But if they come in, we want to say, what websites do they visit, and give us your passwords. So we can see what they do on the internet.”

It was also pointed out that these are just discussions and no final decision had been made, but it was necessary to even if there is a longer delay in the awarding and processing of visa applicants to the US, But warned noncooperation with US regulations and requests will not be tolerated.

Waqas

Waqas Amir is a Milan-based cybersecurity journalist with a passion for covering latest happenings in cyber security and tech world. In addition to being the founder of this website, Waqas is also into gaming, reading and investigative journalism.

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